Safety rail for concrete building



INVENTOR. ROBERT H. SAUL T2 ATTORNEY A Km Oct. 22, 1968 H. SAULTZ SAFETY RAIL FOR CONCRETE BUILDING Filed Jan. 30, 1967 United States Patent 3,406,946 SAFETY RAIL FOR CONCRETE BUILDING Robert H. Saultz, 552 NE. 34th St., Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 33308 Filed Jan. 30, 1967, Ser. No. 612,716 3 Claims. (Cl. 25619) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A safety rail and a method of construction using the safety rail are disclosed, the safety rail being convertible into a permanent ornamental rail having hollow concrete posts and a concrete header. The safety rail includes bolts mounted upright at an edge of a concrete balcony of a building, a plurality of metal pipes respectively telescoped over the bolts, a nut screwed on to the upper end of each bolt and against the pipe, and stringers in the brackets extending between adjacent pipes. The stringers and pipes are removable by detachment of the nuts after finishing work on the balcony has been completed to allow the concrete posts to be placed on the bolts and the header clamped to the posts by again screwing the nuts on the bolts. The construction method includes the steps of mounting the bolts upright on the balcony, placing the pipes on the bolts, screwing a nut on the upper end of each bolt, placing stringers in the brackets of the pipes to extend between pipes, applying finishing material to the balcony, removing the nuts, pipes and stringers from the bolts, placing hollow concrete posts on the bolts, assembling a header on top of the posts, and screwing the nuts on the upper ends of the bolts.

This invention relates to a safety rail for attachment to a concrete extension from a masonry building and whereby to prevent persons falling from the balcony.

The device embodies a rod, threaded at its opposite end portions and with a lower end of the rod having fitment into a recess of the concrete extension and held in the recess by bonding material, such as cement and with the rod adapted to be engaged by a tubular member that is open at its opposite ends and with each end of the tubular member having welded thereto a relatively small plate, that overlies the recess and with a tubular member having welded thereto upon one side, a pair of rectangular shaped brackets that receive wood railings, such as 2 x 4s or like material and with the rod at its lower end having threaded engagement with a nut that sets within the bottom of the recess and to which the rod is fastened and with the plate at the upper end of the tubular member held in fixed upstanding position by a nut that is threaded upon the upper threaded end of the rod whereby the nut when tightened securely mounts the rod to the concrete extension.

The tubular extension after the railing has been removed, constituting an upstanding mounting means for concrete posts, that are permanently attached to a header and with the header being formed of concrete and to also embed the upper plate.

Novel features of construction and operation of the ice FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a section of railing in mounted position upon the concrete balcony of the masonry building,

FIGURE 2 is a section taken substantially on line 2-2 of FIGURE 1, and

FIGURE 3 is a similar view to FIGURE 2 but with the temporary tubular extension being removed and with a permanent molded concrete post fitted thereover.

Referring specifically to the drawings, the numeral 5 designates a balcony or other extension for a masonry building. In the upper surface of the balcony, there is drilled a cylindrical recess 6 at spaced apart points that receives an elongated bolt or rod 7. The bolt 7 is threaded at its opposite ends as indicated at 8 and 9 receiving the clamping nuts 10 and 11. The clamping nut 11 is shoved into the recess 6 where it engages the bottom of the recess and the recess is then filled with concrete or other material 12 so that the bolt 7 extends above the balcony 5 approximately 3 /2 feet.

Fitted over the bolt 7 is a cylindrical pipe section 13 having welded to its opposite ends, relatively small fiat plates 14 and the nut 10 forces the pipe section 13 and its plate 14 rigid to the upper surface of the balcony 5. One side wall of the pipe section 13 has fixed thereto rectangular brackets 15 that receive wood railings 16. The wood railings 16 overlap each other intermediate the pipes 13 and, may be clamped together in any desirable manner.

When the supports, including the pipe sections 13 and the railings 16 are to be removed, the bolts 7 will then constitute rigid upstanding means for receiving ornamental concrete posts 17, that are bolted to the bolt 7 by the upper nut 10 and the post 17 may be of any desirable ornamental shape and having a central opening 18 whereby to have fitment over the bolts 7. A header 19 may be fixed to the upper end of the post 17 and held to the bolt 7 by the nuts 10 and a lock nut 10'. The opening 20 of the header 19 may then be filled with cement, indicated at 21, forming a very desirable railing for balconies or the like.

By using this temporary rail 13 shown on FIGURE 2 and then installing on the same anchor bolt of the finished railing post 17, the builders have eliminated the previous clamped temporary rails around the balcony that were previously used and never dependable for safety and had to be removed on several stages of construction and replaced for the three stages:

(1) When the stucco was applied underneath the balcony.

(2) The finished concrete on the top of the balcony,

and also (3) When painting was necessary.

It will be apparent from the foregoing that a very novel type of safety rail has been provided for the temporary mounting of the railing 16. The balcony adapted to be finished by applying a coat of stucco upon its upper side and for the balance of the surfaces of the balcony to be painted. In each of these operations, when well known clamped on railings were employed, it became necessary that the clamped on railings be removed before each of the above operations could be completed. With the structure of this invention, the plates 14 constitute a gauge for the stucco and permit the application of the stucco while the temporary post including the bolt 7 and the pipe section 13 remained in fixed position and the mechanic was able to apply the stucco to the surface of the balcony up to the plate 14 and there is no necessity for removing the railing 16 in order to accomplish this purpose. After the stucco has set, the pipe section 13 carrying the plates 14 can be removed from the bolt 7, leaving a recess corresponding to the lower plate 14 and then the precast post 17 has fitted over the bolt 7 to rest upon the surface of the stucco and to extend beyond the opening left by the plate 14 and after the post 17 has been installed, the header 19 is engaged over the upper threaded end of the bolt 7 and clamped in position upon the top of the post 17 and fixed thereto by the nuts and 10' and then the opening of the header 20 is filled with concrete or the like, embedding the nuts 10 and 10' into the concrete, rigidly fixing the posts 17 along the balcony for an ornamental rail for permanent construction. The device is simple in construction, is strong, durable, cheap to manufacture and install and is most effective for the purposes indicated.

It is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the precise construction shown, but that changes are contemplated as readily fall within the spirit of the invention as shall be determined by the scope of the subjoined claims.

I claim:

1. A temporary safety rail for use during finishing of a concrete balcony of a building, the safety rail being convertible into a permanent ornamental rail having hollow concrete posts and a concrete header, said safety rail including in combination a plurality of elongated metal bolts mounted upright at an edge of a concrete balcony of a building with a bottom end of each bolt being em bedded and cemented into the concrete of the balcony, each of said bolts having a threaded upper end portion, a plurality of metal pipes respectively tele'scoped over said bolts with each said pipe including a first small plate at the bottom thereof resting on said balcony, a'second small plate at the top end thereof providing a support, and a bracket between said plates for receiving and supporting stringers, a nut screwed onto said upper end portion of each said bolt against said second plate of said pipe for holding said pipe, and stringers in said brackets extending between adjacent pipes, said stringers and pipes being removable by detachment of said nuts so that after finishing work onsaid balcony has been completed said pipes and stringers may be removed and said concrete posts may be placed on said bolts and said header clamped thereto by again screwing said nuts on said bolts over said header.

2. A construction method for use in finishing a concrete balcony of a building comprising cementing into the outer edge portion of a concrete balcony a plurality of elongated bolts so that the bottom end of each bolt is embedded in the concrete of the balcony and the remainder of each bolt projects upright from the upper surface of the balcony, placing a plurality of pipes on said bolts respectively with each pipe having brackets for receiving stringers, each bolt having a threaded upper end portion projecting upward from the corresponding pipe, screwing a nut on the upper end of each bolt and against the upper end of the corresponding pipe to hold the pipe in place,. placing stringers in said brackets extending between said pipes to thereby provide a safety rail, applying finishing material to the surfaces of said balcony while leaving said safety rail in place at all times to protect workmen doing the finishing, removing said nuts and then removing said pipes and stringers while leaving said bolts in place, placing a hollow concrete post on each of said bolts, assembling a header on top of said posts with the upper end of each bolt projecting through said header, and screwing said nuts on the upper ends of said bolts and against said header to hold said header and posts in place. 1

3. The method as claimed in claim 2 in which the upper side of said header has a recess receiving the upper end of said bolt and said nut, and including the further step of applying mastic material in said recess to cover said nut and said bolt end.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 583,027 5/1897 Byers 256-59 1,135,817 4/1915 Klein et al. 256-49 1,215,356 2/1917 Emerick 256 X 2,057,018 10/1936 Dillon 256-19 2,603,456 7/1952 Ruopp 25665 X 3,170,201 2/1965 Nofziger 256-24 X FOREIGN PATENTS 11,322 9/1905 Great Britain.

DAVID J. WILLIAMOWSKY, Primary Examiner.

D. L. TAYLOR, Assistant Examiner. 

